Finding Richard Castle - Annie Oakley
by Beledi1113
Summary: AU 7x01 – Another scenario about how they find Castle. From A Deadly Affair – Montgomery: "Annie Oakley?" Ryan: "I kind of almost shot Castle." From Cuffed: Castle: 'What's gonna happen with that tiger, anyway' Esposito: 'Shoot 'em.'


**Finding Richard Castle – Annie Oakley**

Summary – AU 7x01 – Another scenario about how they find Castle. From A Deadly Affair – Montgomery: "Annie Oakley?" Ryan: "I kind of almost shot Castle_."_ From Cuffed: Castle: 'What's gonna happen with that tiger, anyway?' Esposito: 'Shoot 'em.'

Author's Notes – One last short one before the season starts tonight. Yeah! It's Monday! Rated T for swearing.

Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do. The OCs came out of my imagination.

**Annie Oakley**

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The week had been intense with the team working double murders.

Beckett and the partner she had reluctantly accepted after coming back to work 6 weeks ago were working the murder of a socialite that had made headlights.

Ryan and Espo had just finished a case of a carjacking gone wrong and had found finally found the perp.

They were sitting at their desks, wrapping up the case, when the call came in – some kids, possibly looking for a joyride, found a van in a dead-end alley, the driver slumped over the steering wheel with a bullet hole in his forehead.

Espo glanced over where Beckett stood studying her murder board and then looked at Ryan. "Yo, we got this," he said as he stood and slipped his piece into his holster.

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The alley was out of the way, barely at the edge of their jurisdiction, Lanie and the CSU team already there.

"So what do you have?" said Espo as they walked up to Lanie.

"Male vic, shot once through the forehead – but there's no blood spatter or brains in the car. He was killed elsewhere and then staged here." She picked up his hand with her gloved hand. "No fingerprints either."

"Burned off?" said Ryan as he bent down to take a closer look.

"No," replied Lanie. "Probably removed several years ago."

Espo nodded. "A ghost?"

An officer came up to him. "Sir, if you've got a minute?"

"Sure," said Espo.

They walked to the back of the van where several large black bags already lay on the ground, the last black bag still in the van.

"We've got a problem," said the officer. "These bags," he said motioning to the bags on the ground, "contain feral hog carcasses. But that one," he pointed to the remaining bag, "is still alive. When we tried to pull it out, it started moaning and kicking at us. We can't get near enough to get it out safely."

"No problem," said Espo, pulling out his gun.

"No, wait," said Ryan, frowning at his partner. "Call animal control and have them come pick it up." He then pulled out his Taser and quickly discharged it at the bag, which jerked spasmodically and then lay still.

The officer carefully climbed into the van and toed the bag, getting no response. He then motioned to 2 other officers who helped him pull the bag out of the van and put it to the side.

"You might want to open it slightly – give the poor thing some air," said Ryan.

He and Espo started walking back to the front of the van to talk with Lanie again while the officer bent over to unzip the bag slightly to let air in.

"Detectives!" the officer yelled at them. "It's not a pig – it's a man."

Ryan and Espo ran back as the officer unzipped the rest of the bag.

The man, dressed in gray sweats and barefoot, was hog-tied and a black bag covered his head.

Ryan knelt down and carefully removed the bag from the man's head. "Castle!" He looked up at the officer as Espo knelt down beside him, pulling out his knife to cut the ropes. "Call it in."

He quickly cut Castle loose and then gently pulled off the duct tape covering his mouth and took the ear buds out of his ears. Loud music blared from them.

Once he was freed, Castle's reaction was immediate and his fight or flight instinct set in – he scrambled up, pushing Espo and Ryan out of the way, and started running.

"Oh, shit," said Ryan, as he pulled out his Taser and fired, bringing Castle down again. "Beckett's gonna kill me."

They quickly ran over to where Castle lay, panting, moaning slightly, and rolled him over on his back.

"Hey, Castle, it's us – Ryan and Esposito," said Ryan. "You're safe, man."

"Yeah, we got you," said Espo.

Castle coughed slightly, not opening his eyes. "I won't tell you anything," he said in a gravelly voice. "So just kill me now."

"We're not going to kill you," said Espo. "But Beckett might for messing up the wedding."

They heard sirens in the distance coming closer.

Castle squinted at them through bloodshot eyes. "Ryan? Esposito?" he said cautiously. "Why would I dream about you? Is that really you?"

"Yeah, man," said Ryan as he helped Castle sit up as he continued to stare at them.

The sirens stopped and a car screeched to a halt at the opening of the alley.

The sounds of running heels echoed through the alley as Beckett raced towards Castle, flinging herself on him with a sob.

She could feel him trembling as she held on to him.

"It's you," he said, finally responding and holding her tightly, closing his eyes. "It's really you – you're not a dream."

"It's me and it's you," said Beckett. "You're finally back."

They sat there holding each other while Ryan, Espo, and Lanie looked on, smiling.

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The END


End file.
